FRENCH PRESIDENT Nicolas Sarkozy has insisted he will hold firm on raising the minimum retirement age, despite the huge turnout at nationwide protests against the reform this week.
Seeking to maintain pressure on the government after crowds estimated at between 1.1 million and 2.5 million people took to the streets across the country, Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry yesterday urged Mr Sarkozy to “return to square one” with his “unjust and inefficient” proposals.
“In a democracy, when the population is out on the streets, when there are two million people and many more who support them, one has to listen,” she said.
Encouraged by Tuesday’s turnout, trade unions have called for a new wave of strikes and protests for September 23rd.
Mr Sarkozy issued a statement after yesterday’s cabinet meeting to reiterate that there was “no question of going back on” the proposal to raise the minimum retirement age to 62 from 60.
“We must ensure French people’s pensions and their children’s pensions will be financed,” Mr Sarkozy said, adding that it was the “most reasonable” way to cut soaring deficits. Stressing that he was “attentive to the worries that have been expressed”, the president announced concessions to allow people who started work early or in physically demanding jobs to retire before 62.
The most significant change is that workers will need to demonstrate a 10 per cent level of incapacity, to be determined by a medical board, to benefit from early retirement, compared with 20 per cent in the original Bill.
The opposition dismissed the amendments, which Socialist Party spokesman Benoît Hamon described as old pledges the government had lined up in anticipation of protests. Encouraged by Tuesday’s turnout, François Chérèque, head of the large CFDT union, indicated that further action could take place this month.
Opinion polls suggest strong opposition to Mr Sarkozy’s reform. A survey for France Info radio showed 73 per cent of French people approved of the protests, although 65 per cent felt the strikes would have “no effect on the government’s plans”.
Meanwhile, former president Jacques Chirac’s chances of avoiding a corruption trial improved yesterday when the ruling UMP party agreed to help him repay funds he allegedly misused when he was mayor of Paris.
The party approved a proposal to pay three-quarters of the €2.2 million that lawyers for Mr Chirac and the mayor’s office have agreed should be provided to city hall in exchange for a civil complaint against the former head of state being withdrawn. The party’s general secretary, Xavier Bertrand, said the party had a “duty of solidarity” to Mr Chirac, but Green politicians criticised socialist mayor Bertrand Delanoë for agreeing to the deal.
An investigating magistrate had ordered Mr Chirac (77) to stand trial on criminal charges of embezzlement relating to his time as mayor of the French capital, from 1977 to 1995. The former president is accused of inventing 21 fictitious jobs for friends.